Category: Poems

I have probably read hundreds of poems in English classes throughout my young life, but I never thought that much of them. Nowadays they mean so much more to me. This poem is by William Ernest Henley. He was inspired to write this poem after going through a number of hardships in his life. What I get from it is “never ever ever give up; keep moving forward.”

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.